Joe Holland, left, and Dawn Wehman pull trash out of the Connoquenessing Creek Saturday during a cleanup event. Ninety volunteers with the Allegheny Aquatic Alliance focused on a 16-mile stretch between McCalmont Road in Butler Township and Zelienople.

After seven years of cleaning the Connoquenessing Creek, Christina Handley is still surprised by what she and other volunteers fish out of the creek.

This year is no exception. The crews found two dumpsters, possibly pushed into the creek during flooding from the season's unusually heavy rainfall.

The stormy weather throughout the region earlier this year made the annual cleanup more difficult for the 90 volunteers with the Allegheny Aquatic Alliance who floated down the creek Saturday, said Handley, who is the organization's vice president.

The alliance focused on a 16-mile stretch between McCalmont Road in Butler Township and Zelienople in the 50-mile creek. A second cleanup will be held Sept. 7.

“A lot of backyard debris and man-made goods were swept into the creek this year so we have to take it all out,” Handley said.

Read more in Monday's Butler Eagle.